Five Games to Play with your Bird

Guest Author - Mavis Metcalf

All parrots  large and small  love to play. It is best if they learn at an early age to play by themselves in their cage or on the playstand. It is also fun for both you and your parrot if you play with him or her sometimes. These games are suitable for any size parrot, and yes  budgies are parrots.

1 - Put your bird on a table, with you sitting on a chair at the table. Tap your fingers on the table moving towards your bird. Most birds will run away and turn back to you as soon as your fingers stop chasing and will be ready to do this again and again. In between chases, you can give your bird a bit of his favourite treat.

2  Put your bird on a table, with several different small toys to play with. It will probably not take long before one of the toys is thrown over the side. Quickly pick it up  making a big show of it and put it back on the table. Most likely your bird will quickly throw the same (or a different) toy on the floor to watch your show and wait for you to pick it up. This is one game that you bird will probably really love and you may regret starting it  but on the other hand, this is good exercise for you.

3  Peek-a-boo is always a favourite with parrots. You can hide behind a paper, a box, a wall or even just your hands and then pop out with a cheerful peek-a-boo. Many of the talking parrots will enjoy this game so much that before you know it, you will hear them say peek-a-boo to let you know that they want to play with you.

4 - Laugh! Parrots love to hear us laugh and will often join in with their own laugh (which might resemble your laugh). Laughing is good for us and once you and your bird are laughing together, it might be hard to stop.

5  Find a paper bag that is a good size for your bird  lunchbag size for budgie/lovebird sized birds, a little larger for longtail parakeets such as indian ringneck and/or senegal sized birds and the large grocery bags for the larger parrots. Put the bag on a table and place a few treats inside the bag, encouraging your bird to go after the treats. This might take a little while for some birds, so put the treats right at the front of the bag so he can reach them without stepping inside. Once that is not a problem, put the treats a little further in. It might take a few times before your bird goes in and even then it might just be to grab the treat and run out again, but this is something that you can do a few times a week until he is comfortable. Once your bird is comfortable in the bag, he might chirp and be surprised to hear his own echo. After a few more times, he will enjoy hearing his echo and will run in just to chirp or talk. You can also put a few small toys in the bag for him to play with. If he throws the toys against the side of the bag, this will again make different sounds that he will probably enjoy.

Make up some games of your own that you can play with your parrot. Post your ideas in the forum so we can all try something new.